Monday, November 1st, 2004

Poor Napoleon

I’m not sure there was any sort of plot to Napoleon Dynamite. It seemed more an hour and a half of loosely related, desperately quirky sight gags and non sequiters. The characters are so over the top awkward that you can’t help but laugh with or at them. Jon Heder as the titular character and Efren Ramirez as his sidekick Pedro both seem to have been given “autism” as their main bit of direction. Either way, the results were often amusing and on occasion laugh-out-loud funny, particularly Napoleon’s grand finale dance-off.

It’s guaranteed to be a cult movie hit, and therein lies my main reservation – it felt like it was made to be a cult movie hit. Like the thing was put together deliberately and calculatedly (is that a word?) to appeal to the indie/geek demographic. But, that’s a minor complaint and even if that’s the case, it was still a fun, if slight, film. And I enjoyed hearing When In Rome’s “The Promise” over the closing credits, in a completely unironic sense. I really liked that song – my brother even had the 12″ with all the unnecessary remixes. Honest. Footnote – Even though “Napoleon Dynamite” was a pseudonym Elvis Costello used in the 80s, writer and director Jared Hess says that he got it from someone he met while on a mission for the Church of Mormon.

Lazy-I finds out where Matthew Sweet has been hiding the last few years. Matthew is in Toronto at the Mod Club next Monday night. Thanks to Eugene for the link.

Nude As The News interviews soon-to-be-ex-GBV guitarist Doug Gillard on the end of one era and the start of a new one. Doug’s first solo album Salamander came out October 19.

Tiny Mix Tapes, who like to brag that they were all about the Arcade Fire waaaaaay back when, talks to the band in the midst of their continent-conquering tour in support of Funeral.

The Guardian fondly recalls their past interviews with John Peel and The Times considers his legacy in pop music.

I’m relieved to know that I’m not the only one who enjoyed that When In Rome song over the credits. I’ve been playing it obsessively for a few months now, ever since the first time I saw that movie (in August.) It’s frickin’ sweet.